This is two fold really. Firstly a cheeky plea for help. I have 5 followers on my You Tube channel and I need 15 to claim it as an artist channel. So if anyone could temporarily follow me so I can achieve that I would be very grateful. (https://www.youtube.com/@nemoralismusic)
More importantly and less self indulgently, I imagine I’m not the only person who has been avidly composing for years (a lot of years in my case) and is a bit lost. I’ve no unrealistic end game target to ‘make it’ and what I do isn’t ground breaking but it would nice for it to have some purpose.
I have started to release a few tracks into the wild for streaming and have plenty on SoundCloud but it would be interesting to discuss other non established artists’ outlooks and forays into the industry.
A lot of established artist say the best thing you can do is not give up but…
What keeps you going?
What give you that buzz?
Is just popping stuff online and hoping enough?
Should you have ambitions to ‘make it’?
How patient should you be?
Is success artistic or commercial?
I’m interested in peoples’ experiences, thoughts and advice and hopefully others might be too.
Right I’m off now because my brave pill has worn off….
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I haven’t managed to really find that “online success” you seek but I can give you my 2 cents on some of this.
yes everyone says not to give up, to keep going cause it’s a long game… that’s because it is… as to what keeps ME going? idk… music is the only thing I can do… I went to music school I have absolutely NO corporate job skills, no degree in anything, I found music to be the one thing I can stick to (I have adhd, can’t manage to do anything for longer than 5 minutes) so I guess I just don’t have many options here I just HAVE to keep going… and I wouldn’t want to do anything else anyway.
just “popping stuff online” is not enough… there’s people with tons of content that get nowhere, you have to be intentional about it… check out JP Dussan’s instagram for example he’s been making content for YEARS and just recently started getting the big jobs. he’s a great composer that’s also that but look at this content, he’s very intentional and specific about what he posts.
yes you need ambition to do things… how much really depends on what you wanna do but there’s ALWAYS a certain degree of ambition needed to make anything
how patient? VERY patient as far as I can tell… but… your patience has to be backed by the work… I was “patient” for many years but didn’t really do anything about it… until very recently that I noticed I was not taking the steps to get to where I wanted to be… so yes patience is needed but backed with action
success is… what you define it to be… if your goal is to make money maybe the music you make is not gonna be the music you like… if your success is to make the music you want to make then even if you make money you won’t care about it… we define what success is for us, a part of what I defined for myself was that having my own studio was success… I have my own studio… am I making millions out of it? no… but I have my own studio and that’s success to me. now I have a new mark for success, I want to pay my rent WITH the work I do in the studio that I now have, (which was ultimately the goal but had to take steps before that) so yeah… I could be making really horrible commercial music that would make me a ton of money maybe… but I’d hate it SO MUCH… I know this guy, he has a beautiful studio, and what happens? he’s a full on rocker and he makes latino music that he despises with a passion… the artists are a pain to work with cause the genre doesn’t really invite people with any depth to take part in it so he deals with dumb kids and idiots… beautiful studio tho! he’s paying the bills and all… but the cost was to make music he doesn’t like and deal with people he doesn’t enjoy being around… I don’t have the fancy studio but I make the music I wanna make, I take projects that I like and make music I’m happy about and love to share… maybe I’m not seeing economic success yet, but I’m not mad at where I am… to me, I’m halfway there already I just need a bit more time.
and this connects to your ambition too… how bad do you want it and what is it that YOU want?!
maybe this guy just really wanted to pay the bills with music… doesn’t matter WHAT music just some music and he got it… maybe you just want to make the music you want to make and not profit from it which is also valid! whatever it is you wanna do tho… you have to have a certain amount of ambition for it or you just won’t try as hard.
wow that was a big post but yeah… that’s what I got on this hope something in there will resonate and help you out
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Subscribed 
Please don’t be offended when I unsubscribe a couple months later.
I have just done a big prune of subscriptions, youtube and email etc to make the brain less encumbered.
All the best for your new venture
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I absolutely won’t be.
Many thanks for you help.
All the best.
Big Post but very interesting.
Much of that really does resonate.
Patience, ambition and hard work seem to be key to ‘success’.
But the definition of those things into one’s own terms is maybe most important.
Having the time and resources to produce the music one wants to, and succeeding in putting it out there seems a pretty good equation to me.
All the very best luck to you.
Hi
I play piano since 37 years. Never professionally but a lot as part of church band i very different configurations. When I’ve started that journey I hate it. My dad who was a pastor wanted to have pianist in the church and I don’t have possibility to resist around I was 15 years old I found big fun in composing my own stuff. Very basic one but still mine. So playing in the church small and conservative one I started to introduce alternative arrangements. Poor congregation ;). But that was mine way to run away from grey reality of small sad town where I grown up. I was lucky to continue that journey through all they years exploring jazz harmony, gospel, and improvisation as a important part of accompaniment in a church (You will never know what will happen, playing just from scores is a bad idea when you can expect that singing people don’t know what the rhythm is and generally are not a professional musicians - they just want give a glory to God). And that how it stay with me it is my run away from daily life struggle. I don’t make money on music although I always feel that would be a job of my dream. I found playing after the work as a release of stress and I’m really grateful for that vsti instruments which now give me impression like I’m playing with a band. That’s why I love these gestures stuff a lot
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Subscribed and happy to help!
I’ll be coming back to your other question 
You are most kind.
I look forward to your thoughts.
All the best.
Interesting read thank you! Many, like and yourself find this a struggle if we use the wrong measuring stick! Being happy and having fun in what you do is key, but additionally we all have ego on our should saying do more, try harder!
I would love to make music that many others enjoy too and those who listen to my singer songwriter track like them! But selling them in any form of revenue worth mentioning is yet another hurdle to overcome.
David
